Ep. 9 - The Long Game: Winning in Business with Patience and Discipline

In this episode of Wax and Whiskey, host Jaysee 'Bald Hearing Guy' Soto HAS, BC-HIS highlights how most entrepreneurs feel like they’re grinding in the dark until one small shift changes everything. Jaysee shares how perseverance, smart delegation, and strong values drive real growth, even through a pandemic.

From zero patients and no loans to industry awards, Jaysee breaks down his journey of resilience and hustle. He explains how he launched just before COVID-19 and built a thriving practice by focusing on quality, relationships, and never cutting corners.

You’ll learn:

•  Why patience and long-term thinking lead to lasting success 
•  The risks of over-promising and how realistic expectations boost satisfaction 
•  How delegating and hiring well prevents burnout and enables growth 
•  Why saying no to low-margin work protects your value 
•  Practical tips for systems, competition, and professionalism 

If you’re feeling stuck or stretched thin, this episode is a reminder that success is a marathon. 

Looking for real insight you can apply today? Tune in.

Today's Spirit: Heaven Hill Bottled in Bond 7 year

Keywords

audiology, hearing aids, bourbon, business ownership, patient stories, technology, healthcare, insurance, social media, personal journey, social media marketing, imposter syndrome, content creation, lead generation, bourbon tasting, Wax and Whiskey, entrepreneurship, authenticity, marketing tips

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

All right, all right. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Wax and Whiskey Podcast. I am fully clocked out of Altamont Family Hearing. We're gonna talk about entrepreneurship, hearing healthcare in general, crazy patient stories. And if you're into that and you're clocked out, grab a drink. Let's dive in. I hope you guys enjoy the show. Hey, what's going on, everybody? This is JC, the bald hearing guy, owner of Altamont Family Hearing. Welcome to the Wax and Whiskey Podcast. For those that are not watching, we do a video version. We do a podcast version of this as well. And this is me clocked out. It's Friday. I'm not seeing any other patients. And the the podcast is called Wax and Whiskey. So what we're going to be doing is having some whiskey. But what I want to talk about today, today, tonight, it's going to be nighttime in a little bit. Um, what we're going to talk about today is I received a Cultivator of the Year award with CQ Partners. And I was really excited to receive that. It meant so much to me. And I'm going to tell you guys a little bit about that. So, like if you guys are an entrepreneur, if you're starting, if you're already established, if you've been through the roller coaster for entrepreneurship, I think you guys will enjoy this episode. Um, but hang out with me. So here I kind of just vent about what's working, what's not working, things that frustrate me, things that are going on in the hearing aid space, in the entrepreneurship journey. So it doesn't necessarily have to just be about hearing aids, although mainly that's sort of what we talk about. And we also do it enjoying some good bourbon. So I'm still discovering today. Let me show you. Today I am going to be trying the Heaven Hill bourbon. This is Kentucky Stray bourbon whiskey. This bourbon's seven years old. Awesome. And um, I'm trying to figure out what I like. So it's I'm going through, I have my bourbons neat, unless I have an old fashioned, but on the show, I'm normally having them neat and kind of just figuring out what I like, don't like, because I'm on that, you know, just figuring out what works and doesn't work for me. I've found that normally I like things that are like 90 to 100-proof. Things past that are still a little too much for me. Um, but I'm still figuring it out. I'm still going there. This is a 100-proof bourbon, but the reason I chose this one, and it was a story that stood out to me, and I'm going to read that to you guys. So the Kentucky Bourbon pays tribute to the earliest days of the distillery's history when in 1939 it released Heaven Hill Bottled and Bond. The namesake brand quickly became the number one selling bourbon whiskey in the state of Kentucky. Still today, the craftsmanship poured into this bottle by the same founding family meets exacting standards first set forth in the Bottled and Bond Act of 1897. This historic offering reflects on the company's founder's firm belief that it takes patience, perseverance to make something of great quality. That last line is what stood out to me. That last line is what we're going to be talking about. Like any, any, anything. I'm a sucker for like any small business, small family story. And um, you know, just sticking to your guns, going through, you know, sticking to the formula that works, stands out to me. Let me crack this thing open, let me pour it up. I may have to take these headphones off because it is way too hot. Guys, we're in March and Florida's like 90 degrees right now. It's crazy. And it was freezing the other day. My trees, I don't know if it'll show up. For those that are watching on video, my my trees, some of them are burnt in the end. The cold freeze just took them out. So give me a second and uh let's pour this thing up. Alrighty. So we got this thing poured up. Here, cheers to a prosperous 2026. If you're watching it, this right now it's March 26th. Well, it's about to be April, so you're probably gonna watch this in April or hear this in April. But to a prosperous year for all the entrepreneurs that are on this journey. The last few that I've had were um the makers mark. I think that was the last episode, and I was not a fan of this. This I could do all day, every day. This is yeah, it's a little no, no, this is good. It's got that it's like a burnt cherry in the end. I feel like I say the same thing every time. They all taste kind of taste like, oh, not all of them, but um, yeah, I would I definitely like this. Like I would enjoy it. It's not too like some of the other ones that didn't feel, I don't know, if like the body or like it felt something about it just felt off. I'm not a whiskey, what is it? A connoisseur of yeah, the of um I'm trying to figure out on this journey. But this I would absolutely recommend. I would buy this, I would try this again and we'll see. And this is like first impression because sometimes it gotta like punch you in the mouth in the first impression. This is not that. Maybe I'm graduating, maybe I'm gonna be ready to do like you know, the hundred uh past the hundred proofs now. But this is a hundred proof, and you know, it's nice and smooth. But I gotta tell you guys a story actually before we we get into the cultivator of the year award, and that is let me let me find. I have a shout out, a huge shout out, actually, to someone on my LinkedIn, Angela Opel Opel. I'm sorry if I'm mispronouncing your last name. So, Angela on LinkedIn, a hearing instrument specialist at Elevate, Elevate Hearing Center. So she said that her and I said congratulations on her new role, and she said that the podcast inspired her, and it honestly made me so excited. Um, she told me that she listens to it in the car all the time on her long commute into the office. Um in the office that she was undervalued at. So that line was amazing. And now my understanding is that she's opened her own, her own practice or or gone into a new venture. Um, she said, love seeing your drive and success. And this means the world to me. Because I have people that do reach out and like, you know, I see your podcast, or they've seen my Facebook videos, or they've seen some of the content that I'm doing. And it's, I don't know, it's kind of surreal still to that that it when we get feedback, I just love it. I just love it because entrepreneurship is a lonely journey. Uh, I first started by myself. So going into the cultivator of the year award, and then which kind of ties in with this, is when I first started my business, um, the cultivator of the year award is mainly for, it was about, you know, the grind, the grind that I've been on, how I've cultivated and grown Altamont Family Hearing, which is our hearing aid store in Altamont Springs. We help the Hearing Impaired hear their best. And uh, we follow best practices. We're very thorough. We've grown into a place, into a level of confidence now that we are providing the best services in our community and we're confident about it and and we stand behind it. We have our services, we have all these things, right? But I did it it took so long to get there. It took so long to like, you know, get to that level of confidence. And the journey started with me by myself in an office. It's it started with me taking a leap of faith. You know, I was making good money. I work, I work for a big corporate office, um, the corporate chain, I should say, not an office. Well, at one point I was in the corporate office and um it was a corporate store with here USA. And then from there, I went into an independent practice owner. And then from there, um, I took the leap and I said, you know what, I'm gonna do this on my own. And when I opened, it was by myself. I didn't even have a loan lined up. I just found a location. I was, I was putting feelers out there if anyone was selling their practice. So I was, I was actually interested in buying one, but that didn't happen. And then when we found mine, my location, there used to be a beltone in my office. And the beltone had left, I think like a year before. Um, I heard they had they had closed some locations. Beltone's like a franchise, you know, a franchise of hearing aid stores. And they had closed that location, and I think another one down the down the road. When I went into the building, it's a the building's called One Senior Place. It's like this big senior resource center, and um pretty much they have all sorts of services and stuff for the aging population. When I walked in, the girl was like, hey, you know, uh, there used to be a hearing aid office here. So there are people that have come in looking for that service and now they can't find it anymore, which was, I mean, music's in my ears, right? But but the the building itself, since they have classes and things for seniors, I was like, oh, this could be a good spot. But I did that, I mean, I took a leap. Like there was no that, I mean, I had some assurance with that statement, but that was nothing, right? Like it's not like I'm looking at bank statements. It's not like I was buying a practice that I knew how many people were there, how many people kept going, how often they were touched, how many patients they had, you know, all these things that you would look at in evaluation when you're buying a business. None of that applied. This was one person saying, like, oh yeah, we have people asking about your services. Well, I am enjoying that. Um, so I started. I took the leap. I bought all of my equipment, desks and everything. Some things were on Facebook Marketplace, um, like my desk, but the office equipment I bought. I bought some used, I bought things that I could use, things that I could new, but it was all on my American Express credit card. There was no loan. I didn't even have like a savings like that. I had like personal, but not I didn't have like a business fund that I was gonna go into this. I just knew that I wanted to. And I was honestly, I've always maintained good credit and been responsible with that. So I was hoping to get a loan. Um, I was pretty confident that I would get a loan, but you know, I did I had never applied for a loan for a business. I had applied for like my home or a vehicle, you know, stuff like that. So um, so yeah, so I dove in, was the PCC, was the provider, was seeing everyone. I was at networking events actually to this day. Just today, I was at a networking event with the Seminole Chamber. Um, this is just a local like chamber of commerce in my area, hustling, right? And that I still do that to this day. Like, even though we are now, you know, quote unquote, like a stable practice or successful practice. Um, you know, we we as a business, there's up and down. Like you have to keep feeding the pipeline. You have to keep marketing, you have to keep like doing mailers, being on YouTube, doing all those things, right? And um, so that's why this, the, the award is really special for me, because it was pretty much recognizing the journey that I've been on. And this company, the the company that gave me the award, they've been with me since day one. CQ Partners, they're uh they're a buying group. They're like, think of like a business coach, sort of. Um, so they kind of help you with like, you know, what's working, what's not. You get to talk to other providers all over the country that have offices too. And we get to, it's it's like almost like working. Imagine that you're working like in a corporate chain or something. Like you get to communicate with people and ask questions and what's working. And can I have a handout for this? Does anyone have a resource for that? So they kind of they they guide you as you're starting off. And some people keep them even when they're a large established practice, because they're uh a resource, right? They they help you with resources, they help you with growth, they help you look at things that you would normally like otherwise miss. So they've seen when I went from like zero patients, you know, my first order, to now that we, you know, year over year, this is year six of my business, and we have seen growth every year since we've opened, you know, thank you, God. And, you know, and all the support and all the people that show love and all of our patients. Um, and my wife who held it down in the beginning so much, like, you know, just to my support system all around. And and, you know, thankfully we're in a place that we just continue to see growth and so they've seen it. So when I got nominated, you know, when I got that award, it was, I don't know, it was, you know, it was special because it just made it forced me to take a moment and like really look back, like, man, I have been going through a lot. Uh one of the biggest things is I went through a pandemic. So I opened on January 6th, 2020. No, January 1st, 2020 was when I did my LLC. My first actual day was February 6th, 2020. Um, but January 1st, technically I already had the business. Um, I was already like bringing things in, bringing in, you know, furniture into the office, getting everything set up, doing my paperwork, getting credential with insurance, like all the things that it that it takes for a hearing aid store to get up and running. So I was working already, you know, and then like as soon as I opened, we're talking February 6th, we had an open house, we had people coming in. It was like March-ish that the world was shutting down. And I mean, talk about in an immediate like, what am I gonna do moment, you know, because it everyone went home and it's like I don't have a paycheck, I wasn't furloughed. There was no, there was no, you know, some people may have gotten, you know, able to work remote or um some some sort of payment or or ways for them to, and some people got completely furloughed and stopped, you know, but at least they had like job security that something was gonna come. There was nothing for me. Like I didn't know how long the world was gonna shut down. It's still surreal to even talk about the world shutting down today. Like it, what a, you know, chapter in in our history right now. Like, you know, it's it's kind of surreal that everything was closed and then the face masks and going out and everyone being so afraid, and and then having guidelines for those things, like for people to come in and how many people in the room and sanitize sanitizing and face masks and face masks with people that have hearing loss and I mean all these things, right? Like that was that was surreal. Um, we made it, we made it through, and and um there were still challenges, I would say, like the growing pains. We still have growing pains today, but the growing pains that come from you know, opening your new business is that as people kept coming in, I was by myself. So I was the PCC, I was doing the marketing, I was doing the networking, I was seeing the patient fit in the patient, doing the insurance, credentialing. Um, I'd say a credentialing, like just submitting the authorizations, getting paid for them, making sure we got paid for them, all of those things. And then finally, we um, you know, I I had to, the first step was I had to get a call center. And I actually still use them to this day. So I use call for you marketing um as for right now. Uh shout out to Brian. Thank you guys for making us sound good and look good whenever we are not present. So, like if we're not in the office, the call center is like our call behind. So you don't, so patients don't reach a voicemail. So I I implemented a call center because I was getting voicemails. And then the voicemails, it led to, hey, let me call them right back. You know, normally I was trying to call them within within a day. Um, just about always I've called people like within 24 hours, um, if we could, right? But sometimes I would reach them either immediately the next day or even later that day, and they'd be like, Oh, we scheduled somewhere else. And that hurt. That hurt because we were just opening, like, you know, we're we're trying to get business. And it's like, well, no, like I'm gonna take care of you and all these things. And, you know, some of those people did come back for a second opinion. Some of them we lost. Some of them they were like, no, it's okay. Thank you. We scheduled at XYZ store. So yeah. So they would say, you know, we already scheduled. And that would be like there came a point that happened three times, and then that third time I was like, I gotta do something. And then came the call center. So then at least, so they had access to like my books, and they could like when someone called the phone, they would be able to get them scheduled inside. And this, I'm sure that every business of, you know, whatever it is, if you're a painter, if you're a chiropractor, if you're a massage therapist, like at some point, like this is part of that scaling up. Like there comes a point that you can't be everywhere, you can't get everything, right? Can't get to everything. So you got to delegate. And delegating first step was that, and then the immediate next step was like, no, we need help. And then came my wife, Grace, um, to to be my patient care coordinator. She was working, um, well, she was she was working somewhere else at the time, and then she when we had our first baby, she um, when she came back, she she came on to help me out in the office. And, you know, that was great. And and actually it's worked out well for us. Like a lot of people ask about the husband and wife thing and how does that work? And not really an issue with us, but it's been always so busy, thankfully, that we don't really like get to talk about personal things. I would say so much at work. It's always work, work, work. Like, I need you to do this, do that. You know, she's my backbone. Then we hired Francesca, which is our patient care coordinator now. Grace is still um in the office as well. And then just last October, we hired Tony, which is a new or new hearing aid specialist. So we have another provider now. And it's taken, I mean, I'm kind of like fast-forwarding because I I don't have to go through like every detail of the of a of the journey, right? If you have a business, like you've been through this thing. Um, and if you're going through it right now, like this would be the order of operations of like if you're spending a lot of time on a task that doesn't generate revenue, like stop and look at like, do I really need to do this? Do I not? Is this part of the future, the future vision that I have for the company? Is this part of the future version that I have? Like, is it a necessity to get there or not? And if the answers are yes that you can't get to to both or whatever, or all the things, like you can only be in one or two places, let's say at once, even if you multitask. Um, the, you know, there comes a point that you need a delegate. You need to hire somebody, and that should be that trigger. And someone gave me that advice in the beginning. Um, he was uh or is a um an entrepreneur. He owns a very successful law firm and we sat down at lunch. His name's Jeff Hodson. Hudson, Hodson, well, family first law. And right off the bat, I think this was 2020 or 21, but he told me like hire. Like you just need to hire. Hire, let it go, let someone else do it. Hire, let it go, let someone else do it. If you keep doing it, you won't grow. This is my advice to whoever's watching this right now. Hire, let it go. Hire, let it go, hire, let it go. And then I'm I'm kind of saying it for myself right now because I also need to I keep hearing it because I have a very hard time letting go. Anyone in my staff can let you know. Like, I'm still doing our marketing, I still do our social media, even though Francesca's helped with that, Grace has helped with that. Um, I've even hired people to like edit videos or edit things. And on top of that, I just feel like I have to have my hands in everything. And that is wrong because I cannot have my hands in everything. I I just, you know, it's not possible to do that. So the, you know, I am doing much better at letting go and hiring. And my goal is to continue hiring. And whenever there's like the there's a bandwidth issue for one day, you know, don't pull the trigger like for a month, right? But if you start noticing that there is a trend of like, man, no, like I'm I'm falling behind. Falling behind has been two, three months and I just can't get there. Like that might be the sign to say either some sort of virtual assistant, which exists now, and that's I haven't used that, so I can't speak to that. But that is a thing that that seems to be very popular, or or hiring, like, and it's okay to hire, like it's actually so good to hire because you like, you know, you're you're it makes you as an entrepreneur, it makes you feel amazing that you are now, you know, paying, signing the paychecks for other people that are making a livelihood, and if you can pay them well, like we pay our PCCs well above. Well, actually, I'll I'll say without like I guess you're no, you know what? I'll say PCCs when I was at Here USA was like 14, 15, 16 an hour. It's probably changed now, but our PCC is now at about $20 an hour. And, you know, I'd say like 18 to 20, depending on how many things they're doing is is appropriate for like a front office person because there's so many places, at least in Central Florida, that you can call around and and you know, they're not making and we try to do bonuses and and all these other things. Like I want to pay them more, I want to pay them as much as I possibly can, but there's also such a thing as like, you know, paying what the role what is justifiable for that role, right? And a lot of people will be like, well, why are you paying that? Like you pay someone 15 an hour if they're just answering the phone. But it's like, you know, I the truth is that I have my my staff do more than I would say than what that role is. And at some point, it's gonna happen. At some point, that person's going to be overextended, and then we need to hire another person. So there's also a tricky thing of like you can't pay too much because then when you hire the other person to relieve them, like then you're paying two, and then their job, you know what I mean? Like you're overpaying for the role that they're doing because now you're taking more off their plate, which we actually have started doing. It's just trying to take off some of their of their plate because they help me so much. And if I say I need this, I need that, they're they're willing to help. But the goal is not to burn anyone out. Not for me to burn out, not for an employee to burn out, not for anybody to burn out because it, you know, they're they're all human beings. Like you should, there's always gonna be stress in any job that you're in, ever, right? It's always going to happen. So, but you know, there has to be like a um a justifiable amount. Like you can't, you can't feel like I can't catch up every single day of my life. Like, that's not healthy either. So yeah, like, you know, you can't the goal is like if we're if you're going into business for yourself, you know, you you've probably escaped some version of like either being undervalued, underappreciated, overworked. So like the the goal, like try to remember that for yourself whenever you're in the business. And that's something I have to remind myself, and I'm still I'm having a really hard time with this one actually, but you know, just realizing that it like life we work to provide, to have a quality of life for ourselves, for our patients, for our staff. So whenever that's going out the window in the office, like we need to just continue to reevaluate, like, okay, what can we do to have a balance? I guess we want to thrive, yes, we want to be successful, but we can't see everybody, we can't fit everybody, we can't promise everyone that they're gonna have the hearing it's in two days because there's only many, there's only you know, eight work hours, subtract lunch, seven work hours, right, in the day. You can't, you you just can't, you know, if you're fitting, if you're you have a lot of fittings and a lot of people that are coming in, like you can't. So, and as a per as an entrepreneur, you want to tell every person that comes in, I'm gonna take care of you and I'm gonna take care of you right now. I'm gonna get you here and better right away, by tomorrow, by the next day. Like, you know, we we can overpromise. And, you know, I try to say, hey, you're hearing it's gonna be in in about a week, and I'll see you as soon as I can after. Um, well, sometimes they'll come in in two days, but we don't have availability for 10. Um, and that sort of thing, right? Like once you make too many of those promises or or you start doing that, you start feeling like I'm overextending myself. You start feeling like, well, I'm making promises I can't keep, or you know, or or even if the patient is not upset, because I honestly have not had, like, it's not, I can't say ever, but it's rare that a patient's like like mad that, oh, my hearing aid, I need to get my hearing aid. Like it's usually like if someone's going out of town, and usually for stuff like that, like we're gonna see them after hours, we're gonna figure it out, right? Like if someone's about to fly out. And just about always we have loaners and things we'll give to people. But whatever your trade is, right? Like if it's the same thing, like you, we have to, we want to do the best for the person. Like we want to give them the best right away, right? And um, and you can't, like you, you, you can give them the best service, but you can't, you know, you can't do it yesterday. We're not like an Amazon. Prime world where they're gonna get it in a day or two. You're not gonna paint someone's house, you know, in in two days. So it's that like start starting to set realistic expectations for yourself to not stress yourself out, but also for the other person. So that you don't put that stress on you. Like even if they're not mad, there's this thing in the back of my mind of like, I gotta see Mr. Smith, I gotta see Mrs. Smith, I gotta see Mr. Gonzalez, I gotta da da da. And then when you're going to bed at night, like these this thing is, you know, keeping you up. It keeps, it keeps you wired, keeps you going. Um, so so definitely just it it all goes back to the theme of like as you keep growing, like there comes there, there definitely comes a point that you gotta be like, hey, I have to, I gotta hire. I gotta, I gotta grow, I gotta hire. And this is like the, you know, I it's the only way that I can continue. It's the only way that any of us can grow a successful business. If you're working, and I'm just now getting to this point. Like I'm just now, I would say as of like October, November last year, well, not even going into now, February-ish, January, February, that we're still building systems and ways for me to delegate and effectively do all the things that I want to do now with two providers. You know, if you're if if you're just always grinding, that's not the point. Like, that's not why you got into business was to be stressed out all the time. So um, you know, it's not easy. Like going through this journey, I tell everyone that's a getting into business, and let's say you're starting for yourself, like entrepreneurship is a is a roller coaster. Like there are always things that are happening. I keep saying and I will continue saying that the juice is worth a squeeze, but it it takes there was a whole podcast episode where I was talking about like who should get into entrepreneurship. It's having, you know, this mentality of like things are you're gonna have curveballs that are thrown your way, right? And you have to be able to like continue to adapt through all of this. And that's why that whole cultivator award felt so special because you know, these people have practices that have three, four, five, six locations. I'm still a one location now to provider office, but just to recognize, like, hey, we've seen the hustle. Also, I'm doing a lot on social media, like that takes time, video shooting, editing, podcasting, editing, you know, pictures, like all these things. And these are things that I want to do. And it's just, it's, it's all a lot of time. And I have a family. I have two little girls that, you know, when I clock out on Friday, especially, um, you know, I want to have the best time with them. I want to go to Disney. My wife is literally at Disney right now while I'm shooting this, just because I worked a little later and she was like, I'm gonna take the girls. And I was like, all right, well, this is my opportunity to do this, right? But like I want to do this, like, this is not a chore for me. I love doing it, but it, but you do have to take time to do that. So, like, all this effort, especially on the marketing side of things for me, like because you know, you can do an audio in like your sleep if you've been a provider for a long time. You can you, you know, it's almost like autopilot to a degree um to be able to be able to do that to test and fit, like once you do enough of that, like it's it's almost like second nature, you know. But, you know, all these other things that I'm doing, all these other, all these other marketing efforts, they take time and energy. So thank you, CQ Partners, for that. And um, and yeah, guys, if you're on this journey, please, if you're a hearing aid specialist, an audiologist, you're opening your own practice, you have questions, what's worked, what's not, what's good, what's bad, I'd be happy to help you. Every market is different, every, you know, but I'd be happy to share, um, you know, to kind of like my my my journey, you know, and I don't, I just there's just too much for me to like tell you like everything that we've been through and this and that. But but for the most part, like in any business, you're gonna go through things. You're gonna have that upset customer, you're gonna have that person that um, you know, that's gonna try to negotiate you all the way down, and and there's gonna be times you're gonna say no, and it's gonna be the best decision that you've ever said is to say no. I recently had that. Um, you know, just to say we we we won't go down that low, even though the competitor down the street will. And it's like, well, you know, we have a hundred and fifty five-star Google reviews and reviews in all other channels, and we're one of the few providers that follow best practices, one of the few providers that have options with all the manufacturers. Like, you know, there comes a point to that you can that that confidence comes in and you're like, I don't need to throw it away because you know, and patients will push it. You're gonna win some, you're gonna lose some. And if you're within a uh reasonable, you know, you're you're within a reasonable level, the patient's gonna choose whoever they feel, whatever provider they feel is gonna give them the best care, whoever they feel the most confident with. And that's kind of what I tell the patients. And recently I told this person that's been with me actually for a while, and she's just like, I'm I'm um this so the company was like two grand below what is normal with any practice, with any competitor, so much so that I'm like, wow, that's and they were like, and I could do even more off of that, and I can give you two years of financing, and I can give you this accessory that's eighteen hundred dollars for free. And it's like uh out of all of it, I'm like, man, I I even told her flat out, I was like, that that company will not last. Like there is, you know, their margins, if any, are so low, right? Like, even if like anywhere you guys go, by the way, when you go to buy something like Care Credit and stuff, if you do 18 months, 24 months, no interest, like that, the company that pays for that is the business, by the way. I'm sure every entrepreneur or every or most people know that, but just in case you didn't, like that costs money, right? That's not like free, or it's not like, oh, this is Care Credit's promo. You know, every now and then they'll have like a gift card promo, but those things cost money and they were like given 24 months for free, which is like 10% for us, which is, I mean, it's imagine anything you buy. Let's say, I don't know, you buy Windows and 10, let's say they're four grand and 10% is what it costs just to get the 24 months of no interest. That's $400 off. Plus, you know, their margins or cost of goods, you know, their staff, their rent, their licensed, you know, whatever it is. Like it costs money to have a business, right? So um when you see all that, I'm like, this company's not gonna be around. One, they just showed up overnight, and two, they're not gonna stand the test of time at that pricing unless they adjust. Maybe they're just really aggressive to get foot in the door, um, get people, people to buy from them. Wow, that is so good. That is, I'm gonna pour another one. Please hold. Alrighty. So we're back. Um, the I'm doing I'm doing just a little bit because we I actually have work to do and videos to edit and things after this. Heaven Hill bottle. Yeah, no, it's it's good. Like right off the bat. It's just like after it airs out, it's even smoother. But that Heaven Hill bottled and Bond, seven year. What a good time. Yeah. So um, where was I? So so yeah. So the the you know, there comes a point with something like that that it's okay to tell that person, hey, you know, I hear what you're saying, but we cannot, you know, that we we as a business, like you get the confidence to be able to say, no, we're we're not gonna do that. Like, this is our pricing, you know, help them where you can, of course, especially if someone that's been with you and it's what is it, it's cheaper to keep a customer than earn one, you know, to a degree. Like we worked with her, and in the end she was really stuck. And, you know, and then stories like that are gonna happen. And don't take that personal. You know, that person may be in a bind, you know, whoever that is, and really they you, you know, they're looking for any little bit of help to really afford them. But when it's just a person that's trying to get the best bargain and the best deal, like there just comes a point that you can say, you know, we're not gonna be the cheapest guy in town anymore, or not anymore, but you know, we're not gonna be the cheapest guy in town because we actually go above and beyond, we go further than what is required by law when it comes to fitting the hearing aids. We go further than just a basic fitting. And this is why. And, you know, our appointments are an hour and a half, not 30, 45 minutes for a quick screening. When your hearing aids go out, you're gonna go home with a loner. You're I'm never gonna leave you without a hearing aid. Ever. That is not okay in any circumstance. That's part of our services. We're gonna service them for five years. Normally, hearing aids last four or five. We're gonna make sure that for the life of that hearing aid, you don't have to worry about anything. Whatever version of this there is in your trade, but there comes up with that, you can say that with confidence. Like, yeah, you can go to the corporate store, maybe save a buck or two. But then when you go back and you're upset and you have an issue, guess what? The person that you saw is probably not gonna be there anymore because one of the biggest issues with corporate stores, and I see it all day, every day, all around me, is they rotate staff like crazy. Like the people at my local hear USA, miracle ear, bell tone. Um, I mean, Costco. Costco is like a whole different category, but even the Costco, like there's been different people. I've been in a business six years, and I keep there's I just keep seeing different names all around. The only pi place that I've seen like they have stability is like ear, nose and throat offices. It must be their audiologist well. Um, I'm assuming, because they um they all stay, which is it's still shocking to me why an audiologist wouldn't go into business on their own um and work for an ENT. But I'm assuming that it's lucrative enough or or really their passion is there, right? Like maybe that is maybe that. Um, but or maybe they just don't have the entrepreneurial spirit because this is not, I'm not saying, you know, anyone can jump in and do it. It is, it takes effort and some people may not want it. So, and that's okay. That's okay. Like some people may want to just like clock out on Friday and go home to their family and not worry about a damn thing until Monday, right? Where I'm over here, like, okay, I gotta edit this video, I gotta do that, I gotta do accounting, payroll needs to go out. What about insurance? What about like all these other things that happen, you know, um, it it never, you your brain really never, in my in my experience so far in my journey, never really turns off. I'm sure that there's a level of of success, let's say, that um, you know, where people have a system, they have managers to oversee things. Like that, you know, that would be next is to have other people do the things that stress you out. Um but yeah, so thank you, CQ Partners, for the award. It meant the world. Oh, we also got um business rate, business of the year, hearing aid business of the year. That was really nice. That was based on like Google reviews and stuff. That was really nice. I appreciated that too. But the, but yeah, for anyone that's new in this journey, anyone that's starting, anyone that's looking to start, um, feel free to let me know. I'd be happy to sit down with anyone on a podcast. Um, sit down or just if anyone reaches out, I'd be happy to just tell them what works for me. I know there's people that are like, oh no, why do you share? Like, why do you this and that? And it's like that. I actually have no secret in this trade. Like if my competitors want to beat me, they know how because they put it on video. It's follow best practices, you know, do do don't do the minimum, do the full eval, which I never see, you know, offer all the manufacturers. Don't get baited into loans with one, especially if you're not, if you're iffy about it, because then you're gonna be selling a thing you don't believe in and the patients are gonna know it and they're gonna feel it. And then when the next pro uh manufacturer comes out, Phonak, Otacon, Signia, whomever, when they come out with the next best thing that helps people even more, plus the services in your trade and all the things that you can do to make that hearing aid better, you're gonna sit there going, Oh, I really wish I could do that. And that's tempting, right? Like you any manufacturer of any, of any trade, you know, if they come and they're like, hey, we're gonna give you X amount of dollars to do this, to do this, to do that, um, you know, then you're tempted by loans. And it's like, well, you just gotta pay back X amount of dollars or buy as many units, like avoid that as much as you can because now you are not really um you're biased. Now your decisions that you're making for the patient care is based on what you need to meet financially, you know, and that's a bias. So um, this is the bald hearing guy. Thank you for sitting through this episode of Wax and Whiskey. I'm gonna try to do more. I've had, you know, just plans and things that I want to do. Some things don't happen. It's hard to get a guest. Um, I can I mean guests that I want to have on the on the show, like people that are in our industry or um or other entrepreneurs, it's a little difficult for me. And it's I've had a hard time. I've been saying since episode one, if anyone's been watching since or listening since episode one, I've been saying that I want to have guests. And um I have a big challenge because we have two kids and we normally do this after work, not you know, on a Friday. And, you know, some of the people that we are inviting over, like it's happened twice already, either their sick gets kid their kid gets sick or our kid gets sick. And, you know, it's been challenging. I'll I'll say it's been challenging because this is not my, you know, my full time is being in an office and seeing patients as much as I can, right? So it's hard to make time and my personal time to do this um as well. But it is still a goal. I do have some providers that I'll that I want to have on and just um have different conversations that I think would be um good conversations to have about hearing healthcare in general, entrepreneurship in general. Um, but yeah, if you guys are into that, continue listening to the bald hearing guy in wax and whiskey. And thank you guys for the love, the support. Reach out to me on LinkedIn, JC Soto is my name. It'll it actually says JC Bald Hearing Guy Soto. Be happy to connect with you. And cheers to more growth in 2026.